The Future Of A Clan
by Kurarisa
Summary: Finally, Sasuke can restore his clan... But with the woman he loves gone and only his two best friends for help, can he do it? Summary and title subject to change whenever I feel the urge.
1. Chapter 1

_I will give fair warning, this gets very angsty towards the end. But never mind, read, review, send objects of great value and prettiness. _

_**Pairing**: Sasuke UchihaXSakura Haruno. With possible future lashings of SasukeXNaruto. _

_**Warnings**: Character death and angsty bachelor-type situations. Also probable bad language. _

_**Rules for reading**: Enjoy it, review, don't flame. If you do happen to flame I'll just laugh at you and send you creepy PM's about squirrels. (only Anna and Chris will get that XD)_

_**Disclaimer: **Do you really think, if I owned Naruto, I'd be on here writing crappy fics instead of out there bragging about it? _

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

"You alright?" Sasuke grinned, nestling Sakura a little closer into his side. She smiled back and rested a hand on his chest.

"I'm fine... No, I'm better than fine!" she giggled, sliding up his body so she could whisper excitedly in his ear. "I'm having our baby!"

"Really? I'd never have guessed!" Sasuke mock-gasped. "What with the morning sickness, your constant complaints that your feet have fallen off, not to mention that insane craving you've been having for tomatoes!" He snickered and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "If you ask me, the sooner that kid's out of your stomach and into the word the better." Sakura giggled again and pushed her hair back out of her eyes.

"I can't wait to see him..." she sighed. Sasuke's thin eyebrows knitted together.

"You know it's a boy?" he asked.

"Not really... I just have this feeling, you know?" She put one hand on her stomach, Sasuke covering it with one of his own. He sighed quietly, running his thumb over her knuckles. "What's up?"

"Nothing, I just... What if I'm a bad father?" he muttered, staring out of the window. "It's not like I remember enough of my parents to know what a good father acts like... What if I suck so badly at being a dad that he turns out like me?"

"What, you mean, what if he turns out to be the sweetest, most caring, most amazing guy in the world who's not only a kickass ninja but is also amazingly, jaw-droppingly, stunningly gorgeous?" Sakura grinned. It was such an un-Sasuke thing to worry about she couldn't help but smile.

"You shouldn't be thinking that way about your own son, Electra complexes are in fact frowned upon," the Uchiha teased, earning him a swift punch from the pink-haired mother-to-be. "Hey no fair, I can't hit you back!"

"That's the point," she returned smugly. Dark blue eyes rolled as Sasuke planted another kiss on top of his beautiful girlfriend's head and leaned his own against it, feeling her breathing even out as she fell asleep in his arms. A few minutes later, he joined her.

* * *

Wincing, Sakura gripped the kitchen counter as a lance of pain shot through her stomach. It was small, but it was there nonetheless. She was only 32 weeks gone, surely Ichiro couldn't be ready yet? She grinned as she thought of the name she had been calling the baby- Sasuke was against it for some reason. But he was letting her have her way for now- he had become convinced that her maternal instincts were wrong and that she was having a girl. "We can call her Ichigo if you want," he had conceded, reasoning that it sounded like the name she was so set on for a son. Plucking a tomato from the dish on the counter, she made her slow way back through to the small living room of the apartment the two shared with Naruto. At times the blonde ball of pure energy hadn't been the easiest person to share a house with during a pregnancy, but he'd been the best medicine Sakura needed at others.

She dropped heavily onto the sofa between the two boys, grabbing the remote from their squabbling hands and switched the chat show they had been watching to one of her ridiculous soaps. "You two better stop arguing, if you keep going on like this I might actually go into labour with the stress of having such a disruptive household," she griped, laying a hand on the layer of skin that separated Ichiro from the world. Sasuke frowned and immediately started to fret over her.

"Are you okay? Has something happpened? Naruto, get off your lazy ass and let her put her feet up!" he gabbled in one breath. Sakura laughed.

"I'm fine, Sasu-kun, I just-- Ahhh...." She hissed again and grabbed her stomach, half-doubling over and closing her eyes against another spear of pain. Sasuke and Naruto shared a worried glance.

"Seriously, Sakura, you sure you're okay?" Naruto asked, rubbing her arm comfortingly. Sakura nodded grimly.

"I'll be fine, just leave it, it'll pass..." she managed to force out. Sasuke took charge.

"We will not," he told her, sliding an arm under hers and helping her stand. "Dobe, drive us to the hospital, yeah?" Naruto nodded and grabbed his car keys from the table, returning to help the pink-haired girl stand. He ignored the habitual insult- there were more important things than his and Sasuke's eternal squabble.

The two boys helped Sakura slide into the back seat of the battered car, by now the pains so bad she would give a loud whimper every few seconds. Letting Sasuke sit next to her, he flung himself into the driver's seat and kicked the engine into life, driving at a speed that was as close to illegal as he dared. Every now and again he would glance in the rearview to see how Sakura was doing- each time he looked away feeling more and more uneasy. Beads of sweat had broken out along her forehead and her teeth were gritted hard. He bit his lip worriedly and pressed the gas a little harder.

Getting her into the hospital was a blur of screams and soothing touches- a nurse helped Sasuke bundle her into a wheelchair and away to a private room as Naruto explained what had happened, his face as pale as the Uchiha's. Satisfied with the blond's answers, the doctor nodded and told him to go back to Sakura, a command he obeyed happily.

"How's she doing?" he asked as he closed the door to Sakura's room behind his back and walked over to take the hand that Sasuke wasn't already holding. The Uchiha simply made some kind of noise in his throat, his eyes fixed on Sakura and his skin paling with every passing second.

"Sasuke..." the girl managed to choke out between groans. Sasuke blanched even further and rubbed her arm.

"It's okay, I'm here," he soothed. "Don't worry, Ichigo'll be here soon..."

"Ichiro," she corrected, managing a smile as she corrected the last syllable. Sasuke tried to return it, but it seemed more a grimace than a smile. Naruto couldn't help but smile a little himself- Sasuke Uchiha, the man who could stand against five Sound ninja single handedly, who could kick a door in on the first try, who even stood up to Tsunade every now and again, was squeamish over the preospect of watching Sakura give birth?

"What are you laughing at, dobe?" Sasuke growled. Naruto just laughed again.

"Just the fact I'm gonna be an uncle soon," he answered, passing Sakura a glass of water.

"And a great one you'll be," Sakura smiled weakly, letting her head fall backwards onto the thin pillow. A second later, she began to cough violently, and the few machines she had been attached to began to beep urgently. A swarm of medics began to fill the room as the two men were ushered out. "No, Sasuke, stay with me!" she panicked, reaching out for his hand.

"I'll just be outside, baby," he told her, kissing her on the cheek for a moment. "Love you."

"Love you..." she muttered, before another bout of coughing racked her frame. Sasuke found himself being pushed out of the room and the door being closed in his face. After staring at it for a second, he turned and dropped into a hard plastic chair, burying his head in his hands. He heard Naruto sit next to him, and felt his hand on his back.

"Calm down, teme, she'll be okay," he muttered. "Maybe this is what happens all the time. This could be normal procedure for having a baby."

"Hnn..." It was all Sasuke could manage. The woman he loved was in there, possibly in danger of dying, and he was out here completely unable to help. For such an independant person as the youngest Uchiha, the feeling of utter helplessness was not a pleasant one. The heavy door was cutting off all but the very lowest mumblings from Sakura's room, althugh every now and again there would be a noise that was unmistakably a scream. Sasuke closed his eyes and allowed a tear to fall from under the lid.

A few minutes later, footsteps down the hall made Naruto stand up, and Sasuke raised his head to see his blond friend greet Shikamaru, who Naruto had texted before they had left, saying to meet them at the hospital. After a few words with the blond, Shika dropped into the seat next to Sasuke.

"She okay?" he asked quietly, as if afraid to hear the answer. Sasuke shrugged and began to fiddle with the hem of his shirt. Shikamaru leaned forward, his forearms resting on his knees. "She will be... This is Sakura we're talking about. The girl's a tank." Sasuke let out a strangled laugh and threaded his fingers through his hair, pushing it back from his face.

"I hope so..." he murmured. Suddenly, the low babble of voices stopped. All three men turned their heads sharply towards the door as a doctor emerged. Sasuke and Shikamaru stood up expectantly, Shika standing back a few steps to let Sasuke take the foreground. "Whats happened? Is she okay?" Sasuke demanded. The doctor turned to face him.

"Mr Uchiha?" The ebonette nodded grimly. The doctor's face suddenly became a mask of carefully calculated sympathy and grief.

"Is it Ichigo?" the Uchiha demanded. The doctor looked confused. "The baby. Please tell me she's alright."

"Actually, the baby is a boy, and doing fine. Unfortunately, Miss Haruno..." The doctor sighed and laid a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Sakura isn't." A moment of silence fell over the men.

"What do you mean..." Sasuke finally managed to ask. The doctor sighed again, removing his glasses.

"I'm sorry..." He placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder and fell silent.

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

_Omg.... I cried so hard writing that last bit. Which is weird cause usually Sakura annoys me beyind belief. _

_Here is a word of advice. Never ever watch the flim Junior. It's one of the most disgusting films ever. Seriously, my standards for grossness are pretty high, I can read graphic Hitachiincest and enjoy it, but M-preg physically repulses me. But anyway, like it or not it was the inspiration for this chapter. If I get enough reponses I'll continue it, but for now, all my priorities are on my other story on Mibba. If you're nice to me I'll give you the link. _

_...I'm sure there was something very important I had to say. Unfortunately I can't remember what it was. _

_Anyhow, the review button is your friend. It should be round about --------------------------------_v-v-v----- _here. Use it and I'll be a very happy little writer. _


	2. Chapter 2

_Here we go again with the angst... In this chapter we shall see much OOC-ness and boy-crying. Ah well. _

_Do you really think, if I owned Naruto, I'd be writing crappy fanfic about it? I'd be at TVNippon making them draw me a shotload of ShikaIno! So there!_

**xoxoxoxox**

"Wh... what do you mean, you're sorry?" Sasuke demanded, his pale forehead creasing. "What happened?" His ears tuned out the gasp and concerned mutters from his friends behind him, every inch of his being focused on the doctor's words. Sighing, the doctor folded his glasses and slid them into the pocket of his coat.

"Mr Uchiha, I know this is hard to deal with, but-"

"It might be if you tell me what it is I'm dealing with!" Sasuke yelled, ignoring the disapproving tuts from two nurses who walked past. Though his heart refused to believe it, his mind told him it was true- Sakura...

"Sasuke..." The Uchiha flinched at the feel of Shikamaru's hand on his shoulder. "I..."

"You what, Shika?" the ebonette demanded, spinning roughly to face his friend. "Don't say you're sorry, because you shouldn't be, nothing has happened for anyone to be sorry about!"

"Sasuke, you've gotta-" Naruto tried to reason. Sasuke cut him off, grabbing his shoulders to halt the words, his eyes manic.

"Shut up! Just... Don't! She's not--" He choked, unable to finish the last word. Swallowing hard, his grip tightened on Naruto's shoulders. "Sakura's not dead!" The words hung in the air like a poisonous fog, cutting off all the outside sounds of the hospital apart from Sasuke's harsh breathing and the ticking of a watch. Turning to the doctor, his expression pleaded madly for the truth to be false. "She can't be!" Sighing again, the doctor cast his eyes downwards in sympathy. Barely biting back a sob, Sasuke buried his head in Naruto's shoulder, his shoulders shaking. The blond wrapped him into a hug unashamedly- this was no time for childish squabbles. Turning his back delicately on the scene, Shikamaru began to discuss the formalities with the doctor, letting Sasuke absorb the news.

"She... she can't be dead, dobe..." he choked out into Naruto's shirt. "She... this morning, you saw her! She was fine, she was picking out blankets for the crib!"

"I know, teme... I can't believe it either..." Naruto muttered. Sakura Haruno wasn't the type to just keel over and die. Countless times he and Sasuke had been ill, and she was always the one at the bedside with an asprin and a sigh of "Well, I told you to stop at the fourth shot." The idea of her being gone...

"Sasuke." The Uchiha pulled his head up to look at Shikamaru, his usually solemn expression clouded with grief. "The doctor says you can... see her..." Clenching his jaw for a moment, Sasuke nodded grimly and stepped slowly towards the door, his fists curled so tight his knuckles threatened to burst through the skin. He paused to take a breath, his hand on the handle, before steeling himself and pushing the door open.

The nurses and medics had left the room, leaving everything just as it was before they entered. Except that, when they entered, the pink haired vision of beauty Sasuke walked slowly over to, pushed a coral strand back from her pale eyelids, laid one hand over her cold fingers... When they had entered she was alive. Biting his lip desperately, after an agonizing moment Sasuke did what he hadn't done in years. He dropped to his knees and cried.

He'd known Sakura for years. All his life, it seemed. From his first year at the Acadamy, through the Chuunin exams, through every hardship he'd faced since... his family, Sakura had always been there at his side, every passing day making her less of a pest and more the woman he tolerated, then liked, then loved. The day she had told him about the baby had been the happiest of his life, and they had it all planned out. They'd raise the kid in Konoha, among their friends and their children, and watch the new Rookie Nine grow and mature. They'd stand at the door on the first day of school, a tear in Sakura's eye and the same proud grin on both their faces. If the baby had been a girl, Sasuke would walk her down the aisle on her wedding day, a beaming father next to his glowing daughter, and, had the child been a boy, it would be Sakura's turn to take the focal point of the wedding, in the front row of the church, dabbing her eyes with a lace handkerchief as her son vowed his heart to his love. But all of these plans... they meant nothing if Sakura wasn't here to share them with him!

"Teme?" Sasuke's head jerked up from its position on his arms folded on the edge of the bed to look at Naruto through the thick tears that swam over his eyes- he hadn't even heard the door open, or Naruto's footsteps as he crossed the tiny room and knelt next to him. The blond brushed a teartrack from his friend's cheek. "I've never seen you cry before... I was starting to think you couldn't."

"Me too, to be honest..." Sasuke choked, turning his eyes back to Sakura. He sighed, a sigh that carried every grief in the world in one breath. "I always thought I'd cry when the baby was born... I just didn't think it's be because of this..." His ebony head dropped back onto his folded arms, though no more sobs racked the thin frame. Naruto put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Shika called Ino... she'll be here as soon as she can get away from the store," he told Sasuke. The Uchiha made no sign he was even still alive, let alone had heard him.

"Mr Uchiha?" This time two pairs of eyes raised to find the sourse of the voice: a small, redheaded nurse with a kindly expression and a sad smile. "There's someone who wants to meet you." A gasp echoed across the room: Sasuke, so caught up in Sakura's death, had almost forgotten... Rising to his feet, he followed the nurse out of the room. Naruto and Shika were close behind them.

"Is he..."

"He's fine," the nurse smiled. "Waving his little fists around like nothing on earth." She took a sideways glace at Sasuke. "He looks so much like you." Sasuke couldn't help but smile.

Holding a double door open for him, the nurse offered a small smile as she stepped between rows of tiny cots, stopping at one in the middle of a row. She cast a glance at Sasuke, before bending down to whiper to its occupant. "Someone wants to see you, sweetie." Sasuke walked up to stand next to her and looked at the baby.

The nurse hadn't been lying when she said he looked like his father. Sasuke's son wore the same shock of ebony hair, held himself with the same kind of pride, and through he wasn't more than an hour old, the expression on his face was the replica of his fathers. The girl smiled again. "Do you want to hold him?" Speechless, Sasuke nodded, never taking his eyes off his son as the redhead lifted him into his arms. The two gazes locked, and a silent message seemed to pass bewteen father and son. A wordless message- a message of love.

"He's perfect..." the new father breathed, planting a featherlight kiss on his son's forehead.

"He is," the nurse agreed, warily stroking the tiny knuckles with one finger, as if afraid Sasuke would brush her away. "Have you thought about names?"

"There's only one I would think of choosing," Sasuke said firmly, a silvery tear running down his cheek. "Ichiro."

**xoxoxoxoxox**

_So saaaaad..... I always cry when I write this. _

_I feel so bad... Since the last update I have been converted to the ways of SasuSaku, so I feel so bad about killing Sakura. Still, it had to happen for the storyline to work. I'll write a good SasuSaku to make up for it. _

_Review! Even if it's just to tell me what's wrong with this, just review. I don't get reviews anymore. Thank you to everyone who favourited and Alerted. You're all shimmery glittery stars!_


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